Can anyone tell me a cheap way to remove rust from rims. I heard that you can use vinegar but I don't seem to have much luck with it unless I'm missing something. I tried Metal Rescue and that works great but at $ 28 a gallon it is to pricy for me.

Greg

Steel wool or a Scotchbrite pad and elbow grease. Frankly if the rims are rusted it means they are steel and will have lousy braking performance in the dry and dangerous in the wet if you are using rim brakes.

I've read that aluminum foil and water does the trick, no clue how.

if they are chromed steel rims the rust is coming through the chrome plate ,


you are just supressing the surface presence , not removing it.

since steel rims are not good for the rim brakes to stop the bike ,
replacing them with aluminum rims is a 100% way to remove rust ,

since no one calls corrosion of aluminum 'Rust'.

This is a 1996 Huffy single speed cruiser that I'm restoring for my wife and I'm trying to keep my cost as low as possible. So I'm trying not to have to get new rims. It's black and she wants it painted Candy Apple Green so that will be my next challange. I'm hoping that I can just sand it down so the paint sticks to it then paint over top of it.

Test a spot first. Not all paint can cover any paint, even with roughing up the surface.

the same sand blasting to doa paint prep can be done to the rims,
But you have to rear down the wheels and respoke them after the paint job /Powder coat

might get a good price if all are powder coated together at once in same color.

Thanks for the info.

Bar Keepers Friend. You find it by the cleansers like Comet in the grocery store.

CLR cleaner for the main areas agitated with the the steel wool. A brass bristle brush for around the spoke faces. The ideal of course would be to de-spoke and rebuild it after cleaning it fully with the CLR(and rinsing) then clean the spokes off all the way with the steel wool, but that is a bit more involved.

vinegar would work if you could immerse the whole rim in it for 24 hours or more. Of course, you can't do that without also immersing the hub or taking the whole wheel apart. I guess you could dip a little section at a time, rinse, dry, and then rotate the wheel to get the next little section. That would take days. I think I would go with the abrasive and elbow grease method.

Or maybe you can find a suitable donor bike with aluminum wheels on Craig's List.

I had good luck in the past with Turtle Wax Chrome Polish. Haven't had to attack a rust issue for more than a few years now.

Bar Keepers Friend contains oxalic acid, which is a pretty darn good rust remover. You can get bigger quantities of oxalic acid from home improvement stores, cheap. It's marketed as wood bleach.

Any auto parts store will have a basic chrome polish that will remove rust. They are mostly ammonia and other inert ingredients. Fastest easiest method is to apply it with a tooth brush, then polish with a strip of fabric. That should take care of most of the rust. There is a point where the chrome plating may have deteriorated to the point where it is not save-able, but hopefully you're not there yet and polish is all you need.

As for painting the bike, paints differ, I stole this from the internet:

In general, there are three kinds of paint: Acrylic/Acrylic latex,
Enamel/Oil and Lacquer. The industry has an acronym that they use
that determines what kind of paint can cover another: : LEA.


Lacquer can be covered by lacquer, enamel or acrylics.
Enamel can only be covered by enamel or acrylics.
Acrylics can't be covered by anything but more acrylic.

You can try oxalic acid.

https://www.vintagebmx.com/community/lofiversion/index.php/t4004702-0.html

+1 oxalic acid or bar keepers friend. The oxalic acid will be about $11 a gallon. When I've used it, it has been on parts I've been able to soak. People in vintage cycles use it. Do a search for more experienced advice or post on that forum.

Great information, thanks.

Thanks to everyone for all your help with this issue. Going to go to Lowes and see if I can get some Wood Bleach.

FYI: Last time I asked at Lowes (about 2 months ago), they did not carry it. Got mine at a local True Value Hardware Store.

Thanks for the info. I'll check around.

There are literally at least 1000 threads on oxalic acid already, where to find it, how to mix it, how to dispose of it, etc. Google will get you there.